


A Life Rewound

by PrincessofWhiteSnow



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A story about forgiveness, Because what even the hell was that?, But not super important more like a plot device to get the story where I need it to be, Catharsis is the point, F/M, Fix It, Gryffindor Luna Lovegood, Hufflepuff Ron Weasley, M/M, Magical Creatures involved, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Master of Death Harry Potter, No character bashing, Not Epilogue Compliant, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Not Pottermore Compliant, Past Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Ravenclaw George Weasley, Romance included but not the point, Slytherin Harry Potter, Slytherin Hermione Granger, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21538579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessofWhiteSnow/pseuds/PrincessofWhiteSnow
Summary: Lily Evan's notices something strange about the new transfer students and becomes determined to find out why. The Marauders just want to get into a little mischief, and Severus Snape decidedly does not. When the Golden Trio and company find themselves twenty years in the past, they do what any sensible wizard would do when told they've created an alternate dimension by accident, they make the best of it. Going back to Hogwarts under younger assumed identities, the squad works together to take down Tom Riddle from inside Hogwarts and set some other things to rights as well.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Undisclosed, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Luna Lovegood/Rolf Scamander, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Will be updated as we go
Comments: 53
Kudos: 436
Collections: An Uchiha's Hoard, May I Slytherin?





	1. The Sorting

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Just putting this out to see if there is any interest in the story. I specialize in time travel fics and Harry Potter has been nagging my brain for quite some time. I'm still writing WOW if you follow that story, and this one certainly won't affect that being written. No set update schedule thus far.

**The Sorting**

_Lily Evans_

There was something off about them. The first being that even the shortest was a full head taller than the students they followed into the Great Hall. Where once there was the normal hushed chatter, the noise rose further as the taller figures filed in behind the first years fresh off the boats.

“Who are they?” Mary MacDonald asked conspiratorially to the group of sixth-year Gryffindor girls.

Lily lifted her eyebrows at her before she shrugged. Her emerald green eyes traveled to Dorcas Meadows and Alice Fortescue who both appeared just as mystified.

“Transfers,” James hissed.

On cue, the word was passed along the table before creeping across to the other tables as well.

“Come again?” Lily asked, coolly.

Her pale eyebrow twitched just so in annoyance. Though her falling out with Severus had begun before the beginning of the summer hols; Lily still disliked James Potter a great deal. Severus was hardly the only reason she had disliked Potter and his roving band of “marauders” as they called themselves. Perhaps, Remus was different, but even he rarely endeared himself by standing aside during one of Potter and Black’s tasteless and often cruel pranks. Peter Pettigrew was hardly worth any true dislike either, but it was rare when the short plump sixth year entered her thoughts at all. Rather than continue staring at James who leaned forward in anticipation of telling her something she didn’t know, Lily glanced back to the strangers. They were decidedly not eleven years old. In fact, they looked to be around their age, or perhaps a year older or younger. There were three boys and two girls who walked closely together as they took in the Great Hall for the first time with varying levels of awe and wonder.

“I overheard Mum talking about it,” James told his rapt audience, but his eyes remained fixed on Lily. “They appealed to the Ministry to join Hogwarts late. It’s all very secretive, but it looks like they were apprenticed to Newt Scamander and Nicholas Flamel!”

A hushed silence fell around them as the table digested the news. It happened only rarely in Magical Britain when a student was taught by a family and then apprenticed under another Witch or Wizard for their fifth through seventh years. Most would quit the program by their second year and would transfer discretely into another magical school as an older first year. It was practically unheard of for an upper-year student to transfer, much less five of them at once!

“Why?” Mary blurted, she gulped when a table full of eyes transferred to her but blustered on despite that. “I mean if you’ve got Scamander and the Alchemist in your corner, why transfer here and why so many of them?”

“It’s him,” Lily said, her eyes had latched onto one of the boys. He looked at the crowd with haunted eyes.

The Gryffindors knew immediately which “him” Lily referred to from her tone. Voldemort, the wraith that had steadily gained traction with terrifying speed out in the real world. They had spent the summer hearing about the disappearances, the deaths, and the torture. They heard whispers of the skull and snake and what it meant when it hung above a house as a warning to what waited inside.

“Ah,” Potter said, uncommonly serious, “Yeah, him.”

The group went silent again, until like clockwork Sirius Black slapped a hand against James’s shoulder as he winked at them.

“Fresh blood!” Sirius grinned a wolfish smile. “Fresh suckers for the picking. You figure we bring out the big guns boys?”

The Gryffindor cackled as he shared a look with the three boys who made up what he considered a family. Remus suppressed a sigh; though humor twinkled in his eyes. Peter smirked; his eyes were set on the tallest boy with gangly limbs. Peter had always hated those who were excessively taller than he was. James wrapped an arm around Sirius and leaned in to whisper his idea. Lily rolled her eyes at them before she focused on McGonagall who had just stopped before the teachers' table. Lily noted that the transfers held back from the crowd of first years, but they watched the sorting begin with obvious humor. The sorting hat was placed on the stool and as it had for the past five years for Lily, it opened it’s rip of a mouth to begin singing.

_“Upon a shelf, I do sit,_

_Until this day my wait will quit._

_To decide one's fate is my game to play,_

_So, let’s get started and be on our way._

_Four houses, divided_

_Their lives having collided_

_/ To win this twisted race,_

_You have only to listen to me to keep up the pace,_

_Brave and reckless, charge forward and Gryffindor may be your home tonight,_

_Loyal and grounded, kind Hufflepuffs, you are companionable sight._

_Eccentric and clever, Ravenclaws halls with knowledge beckon and call,_

_Or is it ambition and brilliance that will make Hogwarts and Slytherin your hall?”_

Lily was one of the first students to clap, but the room quickly erupted into applause. McGonagall nodded sharply toward the hat and then the headmaster. Now that she was looking, Lily noticed that the headmaster’s intense blue gaze was centered on the five transfer students as well. She wondered what he was thinking behind those half-moon glasses. McGonagall began calling names and the room mostly forgot the older students as they greeted first years. Even as Lily clapped and cheered while first-years joined their ranks, she couldn’t help being curious why none of the transfer students had been called yet.

Indeed, the five of them were left standing in the center aisle. They waited patiently as McGonagall rolled up her parchment and stepped aside. Professor Dumbledore stood, quieting the room with a sweep of his hands.

“Before opening announcements, I would like to introduce and kindly welcome our new transfer students. As you may know, it is unusual to welcome older students into Hogwarts’ hallowed halls, but I expect you all to welcome them with open arms. I expect that our prefects will make themselves available to assist the newcomers to adjust to Hogwarts life. Now if you please, Minerva!” 

Professor McGonagall gave her normally pinched smile before she unrolled the parchment and again began reading. The room leaned forward with bated breath, waiting to hear not only where the transfers would end up, but their names and year.

“George Billius, 7th year,” McGonagall called.

The room waited until one of the five moved forward. It was one of the redheads, and the second tallest of the bunch, though he looked the eldest out of them all. The man’s face was serious, even somber, but it looked as though he should be laughing. Freckles scattered across his face and more than one person gasped when they saw the gaping hole where an ear should have been. The wound revealed by a casual flick of his hair before the redhead sat on the stool. McGonagall dropped the hat onto his head and the room waited…and waited. After a full three minutes in which George’s hands turned white-knuckled from gripping them together, the hat announced, “Ravenclaw!”

The hat sounded very pleased with itself. Billius sat there in a stunned silence, his mouth falling open, as the Ravenclaw table exploded in applause. It took McGonagall taking the hat from his head for him to move. George’s eyes found his fellows as he walked numbly to the Ravenclaw table to be pulled down among them. Ravenclaw’s seventh-year prefect Pandora took George by his arm and parked him next to her. Her golden star earrings twinkled merrily as she sat back down and pat George on his head like he was a child. Her white gold hair framed her grinning face.

The remaining four transfers stared at George in near alarm. The fellow redheaded boy was even slack-jawed. Lily’s eyes were drawn away from him to one of the girls with shiny platinum hair that tumbled down her shoulders. Her ethereal blue eyes were locked on Pandora instead of George. When the girl moved her head to answer the other girl’s question, Lily could make out radish earrings among her pale locks of hair. McGonagall continued as though there had been no interruption to the proceedings.

“Luna Billius, fifth year.”

The blonde girl walked forward, and her intense gaze turned hazy as she approached the sorting hat. So, the girl was related to George then, Lily concluded. Besides both having blue eyes and fair skin, Lily couldn’t see any resemblance between them. Then again, she and Tunney had never looked alike either, as they had taken after different parents. Luna had a vague expression when she plopped down on the stool and waited for the hat to be placed on her head. Again, the hat deliberated for a long time, before it finally announced, “Gryffindor!”

To the delight of her table around her they cheered for Luna. Having one of the transfers was quickly becoming a status symbol based on the smug look she saw James and Sirius send at the Slytherin table. Lily carefully kept her gaze away from the snakes, but she had been aware of a heavy look from one in particular, all evening. It was Lily who stood up and walked to meet the lithe blonde when the fifth-year prefects seemed more consumed with gossiping than helping their year-mate. Luna smiled widely at her as she stood with the sorting hat still on her head. McGonagall quickly snatched it before she could walk off with it as several first years did every sorting. Lily extended a hand and Luna took it as she smiled up at her with an odd twinkle in her eyes.

“Lily Evans,” Lily introduced herself with a smile, “I’m a Gryffindor prefect, our table is over here.”

“Luna,” the girl replied and smiled wider before her eyes slid sideways to look over Lily’s shoulder where the rest of her companions still waited. When she looked back to Lily her grin widened.

“The Crinkle-back Snifflers like you. I believe we’ll get along.”

“Crink—” Lily started, but Luna was already walking toward their table pulling Lily along with their threaded fingers.

“Oh, yes,” Luna agreed. “Papa used to set out peppermint for them all the time! They are very good luck because they’re drawn to the sweetness of temperment.”

“Sounds…sweet?!” Lily laughed and despite the oddness of the girl, Lily already found that she liked her.

Luna led them back to where Lily had been sitting. She took the seat directly next to Potter which would be a needed buffer between Lily and the arrogant pisspot. Luna turned to smile at the marauders to her left. The four boys watched her with varying expressions. Peter looked vaguely weirded out by the radishes in her ears. Remus smiled politely but was more focused on the other transfers about to be sorted. Sirius grinned large and merry, an expression that grew bigger when Luna informed a smirking James that he had a nasty case of snarkcaks. James kept his comments to himself under Lily’s glare over Luna’s head. McGonagall continued the ceremony once the Gryffindor table had finally stopped cheering as they struggled to get a good look at their newest lioness.

McGonagall cleared her throat before announcing the next name. “Ronald Billius, sixth year.”

The second redhead and the tallest of the bunch visibly swallowed. The remaining boy with wild black hair patted Ronald on the shoulder before he pushed him forward. A bushy-haired girl disentangled their fingers which Lily had only just realized had been threaded together. Ronald shared a heavy look first with the girl and then the boy before he punched the boy’s shoulder companionably. Finally, he walked forward. Again, as they were now expecting, the hat took a long time in its deliberation. Ronald’s face became heated the longer the inspection went, his ears turning as red as his hair. Lily wondered, was he arguing with the hat?

“Hufflepuff,” the sorting hat announced to a muffled curse from the boy that was swallowed up by the Hufflepuff’s exclamation of joy.

Lily spared the Slytherin table a glance to see that they were trying to hide their sulking behind disdain. She saw a flash of greasy hair being pushed behind one ear, but before she could break her promise to herself, she heard George Billius above the throng as he threw back his head and started to guffaw at his brother.

“Shuddup,” his younger brother growled as he took the hat off; though his face still burned.

He looked helplessly to the girl and boy who still waited to be sorted. The girl visibly sighed and waved for him to get a move on. The other boy bit his lip and ducked his head to hide the mirth on his face. Ronald wasn’t alone for long because a dark-haired Hufflepuff prefect walked up to throw an arm around him jovially. The puff grinned up at Ronald and whispered something that made the transfer student let out a groan before he was pulled toward their table. They knew each other, Lily thought after a moment as Ronald moved his gangly limbs toward the friendly honey badgers. When Lily glanced at Luna to see what she made of the recent events she saw her already smiling. Lily couldn’t help but smile back. Her attention was brought back to the ceremony when McGonagall once again lifted her scroll to read from it.

“Harry Granger, sixth year.”

It was the boy, the one who looked like James but somehow older. If Lily were to really think about it the resemblance would be uncanny, but there was something about him that spoke of a hard life that James certainly did not have as the pampered son of a pureblood house. What had happened to the boy to make him that way? Lily wondered as she watched him walk soberly to the sorting hat. His eyes stayed focused, never straying to the other students or the head table. The hat didn’t fit nearly to his nose as it did the first years, but the boy still closed his light-colored eyes. It was expected to have a wait time, but by comparison to the other three, it was relatively short. Granger nodded his head, and there was a resigned twist to his mouth. He opened his eyes just as the hat announced, “Slytherin.”

It was the oddest thing. Before finding his friends in the crowd, Harry’s eyes shifted toward the Gryffindor table. He met Lily’s eyes as though she were the only person in the room as the Slytherins burst into applause. There was something there, some unknown connection that lifted the hairs on the back of her neck. It was only when Harry’s eyes moved off her and over to James that Lily belatedly realized his eyes had been familiar. Her eyes—but no that was probably the lighting. Lily shook off the odd feeling as Harry took the sorting hat off and smiled politely at McGonagall who surprisingly returned it with a twitch of her mouth.

Harry turned and visibly shrugged at Ron and George at the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables respectively. He even looked toward Luna at Gryffindor again and then smiled reassuringly at the lone girl who still waited as he moved toward Slytherin. Lily found herself fascinated with the forbidding expression he gave the upper year Slytherins. She saw him consider sitting beside the first years before a pale boy, an island at the Slytherin table with a potion’s text in front of him, caught his eye. Severus’s greasy hair tangled around his sickly pale face and he jerked his head up a little in surprise when the stranger caught his eye. Something odd passed over Granger’s face, uncomfortable and almost sad before he gave a huff.

Finally, Harry Granger placed himself in the seat next to Severus Snape before he crossed his arms in front of him and refocused on McGonagall. He acted oblivious to the incredulous looks he received from the pureblood royalty who had made an empty place for him. Instead, he had chosen to sit next to Snape, the loner who was only tolerated for his outstanding genius, rather than sit with the pureblood high society of the wizarding world. Severus had taken to staring at the boy with his small mouth barely ajar. In that instant Sev’s eyes flicked over to her and held as they had a million times over the years, sharing in a shared emotion even across a hall. Lily understood him perfectly, even as she tore her eyes away. Tears welled against her will. Where had their connection gone too, and what had happened to her dearest friend?

Severus turned to look at the newcomer from the corner of his eye, but Harry didn’t introduce himself or even look as though he considered it necessary. Granger just faced forward and watched the lone girl who still waited to be sorted. The girl’s fingers had worried together, and it looked as though she were concentrating hard on something before her name was finally called.

“Hermione Granger, sixth year.” The girl, Hermione, jolted forward. First, she sought out Ronald and then Harry before she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. She walked like she was on a mission. The girl sat gingerly on the stool and waited for the hat to be lowered onto her head. Again, the Great Hall had to wait for the verdict. Hermione’s face visibly changed from resignation to shock just before the hat opened its rip of a mouth to announce, “Slytherin!”

Lily could see that all the transfers were visibly shocked by the pronouncement, except for Luna who hummed beside Lily and said in a dreamy tone. “The Snackles are at it again.” Lily heard her just before Slytherin burst into gloating applause while the Marauders groaned. The balance had fallen decidedly in Slytherin’s favor. Lily couldn’t help but compare the two relatives. Were they twins or cousins? Hermione moved quickly to her seat across from Harry with her face clouded over with confusion. Harry looked as dumbfounded while Severus beside him just looked uncomfortable. He seldom talked to women outside of Lily herself and was ill at ease with them. If Lily hadn’t been hearing that awful word spill out of his mouth in her head ever since OWLS last year, Lily might have felt sorry for him. What with the glares from the pureblood royalty and the Marauders combined, he was not in a good position. Lily’s eyes lingered on Harry. He was almost obscured by Hermione’s hair. He had reached forward to take her hand in comfort. Lily saw him nod his head toward Ronald. Hermione looked over her shoulder and then scowled darkly at the boy who gaped at her in horror. The prefect next to him, who Lily now recognized as the son of the famed Magizoologist Newt Scamander, clapped Ronald on the shoulder good-naturedly. Yes, Lily thought, there was something strange about the five of them, and Lily Evan’s was determined to uncover it.


	2. Newt Scamander

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The squad goes monster hunting.

Harry Potter

Harry James Potter really shouldn’t be surprised to find himself twenty years in the past. No, as the-Boy-Who-Lived, the Wizarding World’s Savior, and Witches Weekly’s Most Wanted Wizard he should have expected such occurrences. Really, did he think the death of one Dark Lord would make his life normal? He just didn’t expect it to be Luna Lovegood’s fault. He should have though; it was always the unexpected ones that did him in. Harry just couldn’t say no when she asked him softly if he would help her search for a Fategon—which turned out to be a real creature for once. 

Rolf’s grandfather Newt Scamander was supposed to be there too. A fact that had convinced Hermione, who had a bone to pick with the man over the werewolf register besides her many other questions. With Harry and Hermione going, Ron wasn’t going to be left out. George had sort have been an accident. 

They had breakfast in Diagon Alley every weekday, mostly to make sure George was holding together and partly because George had grown the oddest habit of needing to know where each of the Golden Trio was. It was the same for the rest of the haphazard family. Their disappearing act had apparently left some deep scars despite the necessity at the time. The trio tried to not let it bother them. They conceded that they might have a point. Ginny wasn’t with them for a change, or she otherwise would have been taken back as well. Upon Luna’s unexpected arrival to breakfast to bring the port key, George had scented an adventure (however tame in comparison to their usual fare). He had summarily invited himself along. Luna had only been too delighted to have the extra pair of eyes and ears looking for her creature.

Port-keying was still as unpleasant as it had always been, but Harry had become more graceful with practice. They landed in a forest that looked remarkably like the Forbidden Forest, but it was just subtly creepier… if that were possible. Harry felt his heart squeeze when he saw Luna’s face lit up when she saw Rolf. They were just friends as far as anyone knew, but Hermione was convinced that they would be married within two years. Harry could only agree.

“Rolf,” Luna called to catch the attention of the sandy-haired man who was bent over an odd-looking device. 

He knelt beside an old suitcase that lay unobtrusively open on its side. Rolf looked up and first smiled at Luna before he directed it to the Gryffindors. Rolf had a no-nonsense way about him. He was about Percy’s age and was thoroughly immune to the Golden Trio’s celebrity. Harry thought it had to do with being directly related to the famous Newt Scamander who he had heard was notorious for despising every moment of fame. Harry could understand a man like that.

“Welcome, creature finders,” Rolf said with the flourish of an invisible top hat as he stood. “So good of you to join our quest!”

Luna beamed at them all before she refocused on Rolf. “How are the readings?” She asked excitedly. Rolf grinned wider and beckoned for Luna to come closer while the rest of the party still took in their surroundings. 

“Cheerful,” George commented as he stared pointedly at a flower which resembled a skull with smaller white flowers that crouched below it as if they were scattered bones that had collected across the forest floor. “Do you figure death by strangulation or vivisection fits the aesthetic more?”

“Oh, you’re far more likely to die of a venomous viper vine than either of those,” Luna said absently as her eyes scanned the paper that was printed out of the odd machine she and Rolf were crouched beside. It looked like a sort of telegraph and printer combined, but it was beyond Harry’s comprehension.

“Are we in Austria’s Hidden Forest?” Hermione asked, her eyes sparkled with excitement as she drew closer to another odd-looking flower.

“That’s the first thing you ask?” Ron scoffed, incredulous even after all those years.

“Oh, Ronald,” Hermione rolled her eyes at Luna as though the two shared a conversation that only women could understand, even one as ethereal as Luna. 

“Oh, Ronniekins!” George simpered as he reached out to pinch Ron’s cheek like their Great Aunt Muriel. “Don’t you appreciate tramping through a death forest like the good old days? You can’t let your lives get boring and normal now can you?!”

Harry guffawed at George and Ron as the younger brother slapped the elder’s pinch from his cheek.

“Gerrof me, holey git,” Ron snapped. Harry just kept laughing as Hermione glared at them like they were naughty children. Luna and Rolf were still bent over the machine to interpret the results.

“Wait, what was that?” George asked as he angled his bad side toward Ron, he flipped his hair back so the dark maw of the wound was revealed. “I can’t hear you.”

“Oh, get off it, you prat!” Ron snarled, he crossed his arms over his chest, but there was mirth in his eyes. 

It was nice to see George joke around without waiting for another voice to say the punchline or to start the next one. It had been nearly a year since the battle of Hogwarts, but George was only then becoming himself again. An independent person of the other half that was no longer there.

“Hermione is in her happy place,” Harry commented wryly as he watched her flit around the clearing to observe the exotic flora the forest had to offer. 

“We should have brought Neville,” Ron added derisively.

“Kid would’ve probably—“George started to say with a leer, but Hermione’s wand whipped out even as she looked at a flower, silver sparks erupted from the tip to signal her automatic spell. Harry looked over at George and stifled a laugh at the gag that had appeared in George’s mouth. The tall redhead tried to pry the gag from his mouth to no avail without his mouth free to undo the spell. George glared at Hermione, but she didn’t even look at him. 

He moved his glare to Harry and Ron who were both leaning on each other for support as they laughed. The elder brother lunged at the two with a soundless cry. He grabbed both the boys’ necks, so they were forced to bend down as they flailed. They struggled under George’s firm grip for a moment until it finally occurred to Harry to use a stinging hex. George let out a silent yowl and dropped Harry though he dragged Ron further with him. The two brothers wrestled as the two steadily turned maroon from laughter and exertion. While Hermione continued to study a strange plant; Harry went toward Luna and Rolf to observe the strange contraption they were so enraptured by.

“So, what exactly is this?” Harry asked. 

He picked up the paper that had been spat out, examined and then set aside neatly. Luna hummed as she continued to observe the flow of information. It was Rolf who looked up and explained.

“This is mapping spirit data,” Rolf explained, he trailed his finger across a thick golden line that had held steady until it had begun to spike. It mirrored a faint silver line that had started to look more prominent in the latest papers. “The more magic in the area, the more spirit. Normally there would be a moderate spike with Wizards about, but to get this level well, that’s where you and my grand-da come in.”

“Me?” Harry asked.

“And me,” a quiet and self-conscious voice announced with forced sort of jovial tone. 

Harry jerked his head up and searched the clearing. The suitcase had been opened and a man’s gray head was lifting from within the confines of the space. Harry had experience with magical space, but it still took him by surprise to see a fully-grown wizard emerge out of a suitcase.

“Newt Scamander?” Harry asked though he recognized the man from Rita Skeeter’s book on Dumbledore. 

Scamander had been a favored pupil to the late headmaster and had been pivotal in Gellert Grindelwald’s defeat and capture. Though Rita had been far less kind about the affair as expected of the noxious beetle. Newt gave him a funny little smile as he hefted himself fully from the suitcase.

“Harry Potter,” Newt said, “it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Albus spoke fondly of you in his letters to me.”

Harry blinked as he registered shock. An ache in his throat began to throb. “I wish I could return the praise.” Harry was surprised by the amount of bitterness in his tone. Scamander hummed as though he knew more than he would say.

“Well, I dare say you had better things to talk about than gossip about a has-been magizoologist like me.”

“Has been?” Hermione gasped. 

Harry blinked as his best friend suddenly appeared next to him and Newt. Self-consciously Harry stood up from his crouch as Hermione offered her hand to elder gentlemen.

“Hermione Grander, Hogwarts 7th year, I just read your treatise on obscurial potential and I have to say I have several questions—"

“Miss Granger,” Newt said as he shook her hand, “Albus also wrote to me about your scholastic accomplishments. He even once suggested I come to teach simply to entice you into a summer apprenticeship—certain factors interceded of course.”

Being on the run from a genocidal wizard tended to do that, Harry thought snarkily

“Oh—ho,” George interjected, he still dragged Ron under his arm despite finally freeing himself from the gag, “and what did dear old twinkle beard say about my little brother? Nothing I wager.”

“Quite the contrary,” Newt corrected, “I’ve been told to keep my eye out for a fellow-chessmen who has had the dubious honor of playing with Minerva’s unnerving chess set and winning. And without wards to boot.”

“At eleven,” Harry added, not ashamed to gloat a little bit on his friend’s behalf whose face looked like a tomato as he forced his brother off him finally. Newt chuckled.

“You three have lived such exciting lives,” he agreed, “which is why your being here is a great help to my research. I thank you for your assistance.” 

“No offense, sir,” Ron said as he moved away from his brother to keep from being mauled again, “but I’m not sure what Harry and I can do for yah, sure ‘Mione probably can help you, but we’re more—a practical sort than researchers.” 

Newt smiled slightly, still not quite making eye contact with any of them. While that was the case, all six young adults felt that he paid close attention to them. Harry felt an almost protective aura around the man, both coming from him and the urge to do the same in return.

“I’m sure you would do very well as well Mr. Weasley,” Scamander said nodding to himself before he reached down to pick up the readouts from his great-grandson, “but what I mean is that the Fategon, well it is only discernible to the eye if a certain threshold of… fate markers come together.”

“Fate markers?” Hermione asked, clearly baffled by the term she had never come across in her studies. Newt nodded again before he continued to explain in his quiet thoughtful voice. 

“They aren’t recognized by most of wizarding society,” Scamander admitted, “only those who have traveled and studied magical creatures extensively believe in them. The prevailing theory that my apprentices and I have is that wizards who are involved in momentous events such as those that occurred last year, attract a certain kind of spirit which is not accessible on this plane. They leave a…scent on that witch or wizard which attracts further strange events and more markers. The experience sort of compounds exponentially until you reach such a level that a tiny fissure in the veil between worlds becomes visible under the right circumstances.”

Harry looked at Hermione and Ron when Newt mentioned attracting more mysterious events, that would certainly explain Harry’s entire existence. He was nervous about what else Scamander would say, he wondered if there was a way to get rid of the markers. It was a naïve thought. 

“So, you’re searching for a creature that lives on that other plane, but you need more fate markers to attract it?” Hermione guessed her eyes were alight with newfound knowledge. Harry could practically feel her vibrating with glee and the desire to research long into the night. 

Newt pointed to the faint silver line that was thickening by the second on the readout.

“Indeed, the Fategon was last recorded in the ancient era before most of our texts, in this very forest. My understanding of the creature is that it offers the witch or wizard what they truly need to better society. That is the myth at least. I have waited nearly fifty years for this time and date, I do not think it is a coincidence that you were led here by life either.”

“Well, that’s not ominous,” George deadpanned. 

“I promised Albus I would try,” Newt admitted quietly to himself, but before any of them could call him out on it Luna gasped. They looked toward her and saw the lines on the machine had started to go haywire. Luna lifted the paper toward Scamander with a dreamy smile.

“It must be here.”

Harry tried not to feel the sense of premonition that settled down over him, but after eighteen years, his body knew when something insane was about to happen and that it usually was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore’s fault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still taking suggestions about couples.


	3. Invading Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione and Harry invade Severus Snape's space.

Severus Snape

Why the twin Granger’s choose him to sit with was a mystery to Severus Snape. He thought it was obvious he wished to be alone, thank you very much. One does not sit surrounded by empty spaces at a table full of school children and desire for his space to be invaded. Snape decidedly did not admit that the younger years were afraid of him, and the older put up with him during classes for his intelligence and D.E. meetings for his Dark Arts acumen. They did not like him. They did not respect him. Severus had never been, the only person who ever had—

Their year of Slytherins looked flabbergasted, shooting glares at the Half-Blood Prince for having the misfortune of sitting by himself when the Purebloods wished to be entertained by the latest Hogwarts novelty. The strangely solemn boy sat down heavily next to him first, shocking Snape to his core. His thin mouth opened in surprise rather than a sneer and almost against his will his eyes flicked over to Lily. Their gazes held across the room with a million thoughts passing between them as though he had used legilimency.

Lily tore her eyes away and left Snape bereft, instead, he moved his stinging eyes to Granger beside him who watched presumably his twin stand there alone awaiting her sorting. He didn’t seem curious about Snape, or any of the others in his new house. He stared out from his crossed arms as the other Granger sat on the stool in front of the school. 

Though it had felt much longer than actual reality the girl’s house was finally called out. 

Snape couldn’t say that he was surprised that the bushy-haired girl was a Slytherin like her brother. She had a sharp look about her that could belong to Ravenclaw or Slytherin, but the cunning in which she scanned the hall and observed each of them, as though weighing them for potential benefit or risk, placed her firmly in the house of snakes. Even so, she was obviously shocked, including her brother and the others who had accompanied them into the Great Hall. As the Slytherin table exploded into cheers, Snape took a moment of joy when he saw the marauders sulking about losing the balance of novelty, but he was quick to pay attention to the girl who walked toward the table.

She looked genuinely baffled as her hands were twisted in front of her stomach. Her eyes sought out Harry’s after she had sent several worried glances toward that Ronald Billius character who looked aghast. The Headmaster had already stood again to start announcements as the room quieted at the sweep of his hands. Snape shouldn’t have been surprised when she sat across from Harry as Dumbledore started droning on.. From beneath his greasy hair, he kept track of the silent conversation that seemed to zip between the two of them just from their eyes. 

Hermione sent Harry a wide-eyed look to which Harry’s lips twitched before he shrugged helplessly. When Hermione scowled Harry reached across the table to place his hand over hers before he jerked his chin toward the Hufflepuff table. Hermione turned to look over her shoulder and Severus watched her face turn dark as she took in Ronald’s palpable shock. Before he could recover Hermione harrumphed and turned to face Harry practically seething.

“’Mione,” Harry whispered so that only Severus could overhear their conversation under Dumbledore’s speechifying about new rules they seemed to add every year. “It’s just surprising is all.” 

“Oh, it’s surprising to him,” Hermione whispered back furiously seemingly not caring that Severus had to listen to this domestic, “What about surprising to me? Does he ever think about that? I was preparing for Ravenclaw at most but this—” 

Harry sighed and shrugged helplessly, “I’m in Slytherin too remember.”

Hermione pursed her lips before she exhaled deeply and released the tension in her shoulders.

“Well, he can just deal with being on his own,” Hermione said obstinately before finally her eyes moved from Harry and landed on Severus. They met gazes and Severus was suspicious at the way her eyes quickly flit away as though to avoid legilimency.,Or, Severus's thoughts soured further, she didn’t find him worth making eye-contact with. She wouldn’t be the first person to think so, far from it. Lily couldn’t— Snape diverted his train of thought quickly when the strange girl held her hand out and smiled at him. She still avoided direct eye contact but instead focused on his hooked nose.

“Hermione Granger,” she introduced herself. 

Snape scowled at her.

“So, I’ve heard,” he sneered but only before he relented a little when he saw the Purebloods watching closely. He decided to shake her hand on the off chance she was worth his limited courtesy. This could help his standing in Slytherin by making himself the first to talk to the novelties. “Severus Snape.” 

Hermione let go and noticeably glanced at Harry and jerked her head to the side as though to say “introduce yourself, you git” but that was only Severus’s interpretation of the strange way her face spasmed. Severus very carefully didn’t turn his head, but he could see Harry roll his eyes and turn his head slightly to mutter, “Harry Granger,” before he turned back decidedly to look at Dumbledore instead. 

Well, Snape could appreciate not being forced to make small talk at the very least. The Granger twins remained silent the rest of the speech, watching Dumbledore closely. Severus wasn’t sure what it was about their close appraisal of the Professor that made him take note of it. Just that it appeared they seemed overly invested in the speech rather than continue to stare at their fellow students, or the magical brilliance of the Great Hall ceiling of which the first years continually stared at with open mouths. Pureblood or muggle-born, the ceiling had always been meant to impress, especially at night time when the stars were painted across the ceiling like sugar spilt on black satin. 

When the speech was concluded and the food appeared on the table Snape relaxed a little, once he had food as an excuse, most Slytherins knew to leave him to his sullen silence as he pushed the food around his plate. Only Lily knew that he did this to hide how hungry he was all the time, food was not an abundant resource at Spinner’s End. Few things were abundant there except for alcohol and yelling. 

Apparently, Hermione Granger did not take sudden attention to his plate as a reason not to have conversation. In fact, even as she carefully portioned out her servings, she seemed to take his retreat as a challenge. From the corner of his eye, Severus could see Harry send his twin a glare as she opened her mouth. The newly minted Slytherin ignored him completely.

“So, Severus,” Hermione paused, seeming to have trouble thinking of a topic now that she had started, Severus pursed his lips as he dumped a helping of potatoes on his plate hoping the woman would get the message. Hermione Granger it seemed, did not know legilimency. 

“How is the potions program at Hogwarts?” Hermione asked, grimacing at her awkward delivery. 

Harry beside Snape snorted, still looking amused when Hermione glared at him. He shook his head with another laugh as he took up the bowl that Severus had just discarded by giving himself a heavy helping of the potatoes. Snape almost envied his indelicacy. 

“Why do you ask?” Snape asked, his face was pinched. He placed a protective hand on his potions textbook beside him, remembering it’s presence when Hermione glanced down at it and then smiled encouragingly. 

“Only that our old professor, Harry’s and mine, wasn’t the greatest teacher. I’m hoping for better results at Hogwarts.”

Severus jolted when Harry let out another snort, but this time directly into his pumpkin juice. He was still laughing, as he pulled the cup away from his face that was glistening with juice. Severus glared at his shoulder where some of the juice had splattered. He transferred the glare to Hermione when she whipped out her wand and wordless vanished the stain from his clothes and the residue from her brother’s face.

“Oi, that stung,” Harry complained still chuckling as he rubbed at his cheeks which had reddened from the spell, “You’re the one getting snarky.”

“I didn’t mean him,” Hermione grumbled, but Harry still seemed to be giddy by the joke that went over Severus’s head completely. It was not a pleasant sensation to say the least.

“Yes, you did,” Harry said, “don’t lie just because you’re a Slytherin now.”

Hermione rolled her eyes and then meant Snape’s gaze with a shy smile as though to bring him into the joke which Snape felt completely out of his depth to respond too. 

“Well, we did plenty of lying when we weren’t Slytherin’s too now that I think about it,” Harry added thoughtfully as he looked down at his food again. 

Severus felt agitated by the way the two seemed to be having several conversations at once, meanings upon meanings piling on top of each other. It was rare when Snape felt out of depth in a conversation that wasn’t about feelings. Agitatedly Severus rolled up his sleeves and revealed his slender forearms which were the same sickly pale color of his face. Again, from the corner of his eye through the veil of his hair Snape observed Granger looking at him, but this time his eyes were fastened on his forearm. After a moment, Harry looked up and his face was thoughtful before he glanced at Hermione who seemed, as was now their standard, to understand what Snape clearly had no clue of. 

“So, you never answered,” Harry said finally, his voice was more friendly than it had been before when he addressed Snape, “good potions class or not?” 

Severus huffed, shrugging his shoulders in a way he hoped was the simple elegance that Lucius Malfoy had displayed from the moment Snape met him. Both Harry and Hermione exchanged glances and then appeared to accept that as an answer. Snape was somewhat surprised it had worked. 

“Well, I hope so,” Hermione tacked on awkwardly. “Professor Slughorn seemed quite distant this summer. I’m not confident in his abilities as a head of the house.”

“This summer?” Severus asked with a lifted brow. 

Hermione nodded and continued her explanation.

“All of us, well,” Hermione frowned then continued, “we appealed to Hogwarts to be accepted this summer and after jumping through some loops to do with redoing our OWLS, we were brought to Hogwarts to be tested as a sort of formality to ensure that we were the right fit for our classes. Even after the whole production to get the tests finished in time.”

Harry huffed and then slid his gaze over to Severus in a positively friendly look considering the apathetic reaction from before, “Mione’s just upset they wouldn’t take her eleven O’s as a free pass.”

Snape’s eyes widened in surprise. He had never heard of anyone taking so many classes, certainly not at an OWL level going into NEWTs prep, much less achieving O’s on everything. The two didn’t seem to find this odd at all, instead, they were busy bickering with each other.

“What else could I have possibly done?” Hermione asked somewhat tersely, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Oh, you know it was just an excuse. They just wanted to see such a fearsome witch up close,” Harry teased her with a small grin. “It was the rest of us they were really testing.”

“Well, you all did perfectly well on the exams, better than last—” Hermione cut off abruptly but still not relenting, though her face had softened somewhat at the compliment. “Well it that should be endorsement enough. It is what classes should be given on, merit especially when proven through the rigors of standardized testing.”

“What an interesting take on the world?” a sophisticated voice said.

Severus glanced in annoyance at Mulciber who was moving down the bench into Severus’s space. Rosier, Wilkes, and Vivian Greengrass also moved in like sharks scenting blood in the water, or rather a nest of vipers being disturbed. Severus was aggrieved to find that the Slytherin sixth years had barely waited the time it took for the second course of food to appear on the table. The only advantage of the situation was that the Grangers looked more annoyed than he was. Curious. 

Snape tilted his head to hide between the greasy lengths of his hair again, but he wanted to watch the show about to go on in front of him closely. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be required to talk, he far preferred to observe. It would certainly be interesting, and he wondered whether the Granger twins would have what it took to survive Slytherin's house. Granger wasn’t a magical name, just like Snape wasn’t, the political game was officially on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I've heard from several people, and most seem to lean toward snarry which I must admit is my natural inclination. It can still change however because I'm still very much in the foundational stages of the story and honestly I never know where my fingers will take me when I begin typing. I'm confident I could pull off pretty much any of the ships I've suggested, but nonetheless I write time travel fic to heal divides not make them worse. I also don't character bash at all so I think this fic is a safe place to land even if you don't ultimately like the couples who are in it. While my writing is relationship heavy it's not just romance, but friendships and family that are a consideration. Thank you for your support and hope you continue to read!


	4. Greeting Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and the gang get transported to another time and are greeted by unexpected vistors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, at this point, I'm leaning toward Snarry or Harry/George, still deciding, honestly, sometimes characters go places I don't expect.

1999->1975

Harry Potter

It happened very fast, as these things tended to do.

Harry might have felt better about the whole affair if he felt he had done something besides standing in a forest to attract the beast's attention. That might make the strangeness of being transported twenty-four years into the past more palatable if he had done something horribly brave, stupid, or foolish like he was likely to do at any given moment. Then, it would be his fault, and not just the universe fucking with him again, as it was also likely to do at any given moment.

Luna had just finished announcing that the Fategon was there when the ground beneath their feet began to buck wildly. Hermione fell into him as Harry tried to keep the silver-haired magizoologist from toppling backward into his suitcase with a sharp exhale of shock. As Harry reflexively maneuvered them all down to the ground in a heap beside the suitcase Scamander deftly locked it. He pressed the case up against his chest as Newt looked around them with his wand held aloft.

Rolf beside them curled protectively around Luna whose blue eyes were wide with wonder but also a heavy dose of caution. She had lived through enough horror to be wary. Ron and George had followed Harry’s lead and huddled to the ground as it shook and sputtered like a dog shaking out its fur to dispel them like fleas. The tree limbs over them shuddered and before Harry could do it both Hermione and George simultaneously cast shield charms over their heads stopping the heavy limbs from crushing them as the world seemed intent on doing.

“Where is it?” Harry shouted over the crashing of tree limbs and the groaning of the earth beneath their feet. 

Newt leaned closer to Harry pointing his wand up over his shoulder. All of them whirled around as one to look into the face of the creature which was literally unfurling itself from the ground. It looked like a dragon or maybe an older less sharp-looking giant serpent-like the basilisk had been but made of out earth. 

Harry realized with horror that they weren’t just near the creature; they were on top of it as it lifted itself from it’s resting place. They were located on the hump of its spine if Harry could tell from its large head decorated with trees and animals, twisting tree roots bristling out of its earthy skin like coarse hair. It twisted its long sinuous neck to look back at them as the creature hefted itself from the earth, maybe taking the whole forest with it. Its eyes were large blue pools, pupil-less but clearly able to see them as tiny as they must seem to this titan of a creature. It looked and looked.

Harry would say that it was him but maybe they all felt that trapped in its gaze. The ground around them shuddered and moved as the Fategon stared and stared deep into their souls. The hair on the back of Harry’s neck stood at attention, and he nearly stopped breathing when the voice whispered into his mind. A voice that was far wiser, far older, and far kinder than any voice which had haunted Harry’s mind before.

"Fate recognizes what you have done sacrificial lamb, you who have walked to your own likely destruction to save others. You have done a great deal already, following the tangled threads of fate laid out for you. Do you take up this mantle again child? Would you fight again, for what is right, for what is not easy? Or do you seek rest, do you need only peace? Is this the foundation of society you wish to work with?"

Harry was a no savior. He was a man, a tired one at that. No matter what anyone said or thought or wrote about him he had only ever done the best he could with what he had. He had only ever fought for what was right, not what was easy. Was that a mantle he discarded now that he had done so much for so many ungrateful witches and wizards and muggles? 

No, Harry had never been one to choose what was easy, only what was right and difficult and damning. He owed it to his friends, to his family, to his parents who had died so painfully young for their baby boy. Still, that didn’t mean he knew exactly what he was signing up for here. 

He had already defeated Voldemort, and while he was involved with the restoration of order in the wizarding world, as well as training to be an official dark wizard seeker, his talents didn’t seem to be as needed as they had been during the war. Sure, there were plenty of death eaters to track, defeat, and imprison but the really hard work of changing society so a Dark Lord like Voldemort never happened again would need people like Hermione to set it on track. Something she was diligently preparing for. Harry at times felt sorry for wizarding society after Hermione got done hitting them over the head with common sense and decency. 

Scamander had spoken about the Fategon giving them something to better society, but what more could Harry possibly do now when so many lives had already been lost? Whatever his ruminations had revealed to the creature Harry didn’t know. He just watched as the Fategon nodded its gigantic head and then watched as it reached back toward them. Harry froze not wanting to hurt the creature but uncertain he should just let it eat them.

Rather than swoop down to swallow them the Fategon opened its great maw of a mouth. Ribbons of incandescent light shot from the creature's mouth and moved through their shield charms to encircle them all. It moved in a circle and Harry looked down with wide eyes at the warm golden light that protectively circled around them. 

Booming words that echoed through each of their heads was the last thing they experienced in 1999 before the world went dark and seven wizards slipped through time creating a branching timeline for which they would never return. 

“Good luck!” The Fategon had roared as the wizards melted into sparkling light before again it lowered itself to the ground and closed its ancient eyes once more. 

///

They all came too as one, gasping for air on their backs surrounded by an undisturbed forest and a misty blue sky peeking shyly through the tree limbs over them. Harry was the first to sit up his wand in his hand as he scanned the forest looking for the creature or for any other threats. However, nothing appeared different, just the quality of light which looked more like pre-dawn than the afternoon that it had been. 

“Bloody hell,” Ron groaned as the rest of the sat up from their prone position, “Not sure I signed up for that one Luna.”

“Eloquent as always Ronniekins,” George snarked beside him as he rubbed his tender head squinting around as Ron punched his shoulder with a grunt of annoyance. 

“Is everyone well?” Scamander asked clutching his suitcase all the tighter to him. 

He was helped into a standing position by Harry who reached out for him and Hermione after standing on his own. One by one each of the seven wizards sounded their health, slightly dazed with a wicked headache, but otherwise well enough. 

“How much time has passed?” Hermione wondered squinting up at the sky before she performed the tempus spell only to freeze as she studied the conjured image. 

“What is it, Hermione?” Harry asked, feeling tense as Hermione dismissed her spell and then performed tempus again. Hermione didn’t answer as she rubbed her eyes and then stared harder at the image before she looked at Harry with wide eyes.

“It’s wrong.”

“What is Miss Granger?” Scamander asked politely leaning forward to view the image of both a clock and the planets current alignment much like the watch that Harry had been gifted from the Weasleys. 

“Oh,” Scamander grunted before he performed the spell himself comparing the mirror images, “well, that is quite the conundrum.”

“What is it, grandfather?” Rolf asked pulling Luna forward by his arm around her shoulders as they all gathered around the two tempus spells. 

Harry for himself noticed that the spell looked strange as well, something about the planets seemed different, though he wasn’t knowledgeable enough about the change to note what it would mean. Scamander gulped, fussing with his collar before he looked at Hermione as though to confirm that she had reached the same conclusion. 

“We’re in the wrong time,” Hermione supplied sounding strained, “I saw something like this distortion in our third year when…well with the time turner, but it’s far more pronounced this time. Not mere hours, but…”

“Years,” a cool voice suggested sending Harry, Ron, and Hermione to scatter equal distance from each other.

Their wands were up and spells already sent toward the two figures who had somehow snuck upon them in their distraction over the strange tempus spells. Harry’s disarming charm got the older squat witch’s wand, but Hermione and Ron’s spells were absorbed by a powerful shield charm by the second witch who had reacted nearly as fast.   
Harry caught the first woman’s wand as he glared at the two women, the wandless witch looking distinctly annoyed but the other was smiling placidly at them. Behind them the others were reacting to the perceived threat as well, George and Luna a smidge faster than the Scamanders.

The wandless witch looked as though she wanted to be anywhere else at that moment, her steel gray hair gathered in a severe bun that reminded Harry a bit of Professor McGonagall. She wore lilac robes and several beaded necklaces with charms that also reminded Harry distinctly of Trelawney. The other witch might have been albino if not for her dark eyes rimmed by colorless eyelashes. Her hair was loose hanging over her shoulder in a rippling sheet of pure white, her robes were a periwinkle blue in an even more old-fashioned cut than her companion's robes. Her hands were long and pale wrapped around the wand made of white wood that matched her white hair finer even than Luna’s. 

“Who are you?” Harry demanded, eyeing the witch’s strange pale white wand held in a neutral position at her side after she had put up the shield charm.

“More polite to ask before throwing spells, lad,” the wandless witch growled taking a step back to allow her companion to guard her when she was defenseless. 

“Force of habit,” George said jovially. “Desperate times and all that.”

The younger witch smiled at George before her eyes landed on Harry again. 

“You’ll find it hasn’t quite gotten that bad yet here,” the albino witch said pleasantly.

“In Austria?” Ron blurted out, only for the witch to shake her head with a faint twitching smile on her aristocratic face.

“In 1975.”

“19…75,” Harry said as though testing the words, when he glanced at Hermione to see if she was buying this tripe, she looked calculating. She met Harry and Ron’s eyes before giving a decisive nod throwing her weight behind the statement. 

“Out of proper alignment you are, it’s bloody typical the way the planets are this year,” the older witch snarled, “now can I have my wand back lad? I don’t fancy myself wandless in this bleeding forest stuck with her for a champion.”

The albino witch turned to look at her companion with a sardonic expression her eyebrows lifting in amusement. The wandless witch just ignored her and continued glaring at Harry who still held her wand. Harry swept his eyes to the side to gauge his companions' reactions, at both Hermione and Ron’s subtle nods Harry levitated the wand over to the woman trusting his friends to cover his back. Luckily the witch simple wrenched the wand from the air before she pocketed it in her robes with an angry harrumph. 

The other witch glanced at Harry with a twitch of a smile as though to share her amusement about her companion with him. He couldn’t help the subtle lift of his own lips before he managed to discipline them again. Something about her almost reminded Harry of a combination of Luna and Albus Dumbledore in his eccentric moments that could transition at the drop of a hat to cool competence.

“Now that everyone has their wands,” the witch said bowing her head deferentially to her surly companion, “I think we may introduce ourselves before we continue discussions of time and dimensional travel.”

“Dimensional,” Hermione whispered under her breath and Harry could practically hear her brain ignite in excitement at the idea of dimensional travel. 

“This is the esteemed Hogwarts Professor of Divination Cella Palmer circa 1975,” the witch said with a slight bow to the elder witch who continued to scowl at them as her companion smiled “and I am her protégé Alleria.”

“Protégé,” Palmer snorted, “you’re caught up in this nonsense twice as much as I, don’t be inflating my ego for nothing. I haven’t the patience nor the time left in this world to endure false modesty.” 

Alleria smiled wanly. She looked to Harry somehow sad, before that was washed away by her calm visage.

“You’re a seer?” Hermione asked, not able to hide the veiled judgment in her voice. 

She had never gotten over their third year and her inability to learn Divination from a textbook. The two seers clearly heard the derision. Palmer lifted an angry eyebrow at Hermione, while Alleria broke out into a broad grin. 

“Sybill warn you off for life, huh?” Alleria asked with a smile.

“Sybill?” Palmer asked with a derisive snort. “That wee air-puff fourth-year Ravenclaw who keeps divining her classmates' deaths?”

“She’s made true prophecies for them,” Alleria explained as the professor visibly rolled her eyes.

“Not on purpose I would suppose. Well, a broken clock is right twice a day,” Palmer rolled her eyes, “I wouldn’t allow that air-puff form your knowledge of the second sight lass. It’s a rare gift, but we’re not to be ignored.” 

Hermione frowned, clearly still unable to think well of the subject.

“If this is 1975 then how do you know about Trelawney’s prophecy?” Harry asked with clear suspicion.

He was still not sure he really believed they had somehow time-traveled to the past via large mythical creature. Though if he were, to be honest with himself, it would hardly be the weirdest thing to happen to him.

“She’s a seer Harry,” George snorted, “it’s kind of in the job description to see the future and know annoyingly vague details.” 

Harry did his best not to feel abashed over that simple statement of fact. 

“Very astute Mr. Weasley,” Alleria grinned, neither confirming nor denying that was how she got her information. 

“Do you know what brought us here,” Newt Scamander spoke up for the first time and Harry felt him stop at his elbow still holding his wand out in a guarded but non-threatening position. His head tilted down toward his chest as though to protect his neck as he looked slightly above the witches' shoulders. 

“I would think you would know more than I, Mr. Scamander, about the Fategon,” Alleria smiled with a lifted eyebrow as she teased the Magizoologist. 

“So, it was the Fategon which transported us?” Newt confirmed. 

He nodded to himself slowly though he appeared to be processing some deep emotion based on the cast of his hazel eyes.

“Well it certainly facilitated the shift,” Alleria confirmed.

“What did it do, Mr. Scamander?” Hermione asked.

Looking to the expert for an explanation, though it clearly rankled her than she had no more idea than the rest of them what had happened. 

“I—I never guessed that it would be something so….so drastic,” Newt admitted in a quiet but intentional voice as he looked down to his suitcase he still held in one hand, “when Albus and I discussed the Fategon after I discovered the tales years ago, we believed that it would offer some kind of insight, perhaps a unique power or a gift.”

“That would better society,” Luna piped up.

She continued to lean into Rolf’s side though he appeared to be even more lost and out of sorts than the rest of them. It generally came with the territory of being in the vicinity of Harry Potter. It wasn’t something you could actually prepare for; famous Great-grandfather or not. 

“Yes.”

They stood there in the silence for a moment before Alleria nodded gravely.

“And so, you have been given a gift,” she said in nearly a whisper, “to be the only wizards and witches given the chance to change time, and not just to change it but to save it.”

“That is dangerous,” Hermione contradicted looking at her friends to impress upon them the dangers of the moment as she had done all throughout their school years, “we could wipe ourselves out of existence before we’re born, Mr. Scamander excepting! We could stop progress from happening, or any number of things we cannot account for! If we must stay, then we must stay out of events until our times overlap for our lives.” 

“No, you won’t lass,” Palmer shook her head, “ever since this one began badgering about this bloody inconvenience, I’ve done every test known to Divination. Whatever has brought you here expects you to stay for good. If fate has determined you remain here, then you shall remain separate from the you which is, or is not, born in this timeline.”

“That’s were dimensional travel intercedes,” Alleria explained, using her wand to draw a single gold line to demonstrate for them. Seven stick figures began walking down the line at a steady pace. 

“The timeline you came from continues separately from this one. In fact, right now, there is a version of you that is waking up completely unchanged in your proper places where you will continue to live your ordinary lives. However, you lot have branched off not only going back in time but creating a branch dimension and timeline at the exact moment where you will make the most impact to better society.”

The group watched as Alleria drew a slightly shorter golden line above the first and then connected the two to the end of the shorter. The seven stick figures duplicated, seven continuing to walk down the first gold line while the others climbed across the connecting line. As soon as the seven figures stood on the short line it turned silver before it began to grow longer as the seven figures moved forward again, the two timelines and dimensions forever tied by that single point of contact but otherwise autonomous of each other. 

“We can’t go back?” Rolf asked in a quiet voice, the pain echoed in all seven of those present as they thought on those that they had left behind.

“No,” Palmer answered, but this time far kinder than before. 

Alleria watched them with sympathy quiet as they let this knowledge sink in. Hermione let out a little whimper and Ron immediately moved to wrap her in his arms; though he too looked as though he had been struck across the face. Harry slung an arm around George who was closest now and looked as though he didn’t know how to react. Harry was reeling himself and trying not to think about Ginny at all. Rolf had pulled Luna closer to his grandfather who had put a comforting hand on his great-grandson’s golden hair in a smoothing motion. Newt seemed to be taking the news the best out of the seven of them. 

“But…our families will still have us, right?” George croaked, his arm going around Harry’s shoulders as though he suddenly needed the support. “They are actually us and not some kind of echo or fraud?”

“They are you as you currently are,” Alleria reassured them, “although they will grow and change as you will here and become different but no less purely you at your core.”

“Good…” George muttered, both relieved and shellshocked, “mum couldn’t handle it if all of us—"

They stood in shock again, thinking on their duplicates who even then would be waking to a world unchanged. Living the lives that they themselves would never again know. It was heartbreaking...but also something else--

“Remember this is a gift,” Alleria reiterated dissolving her example with a flick of her wand, “you have the chance to change what has already been! Think of those you could save, the change you could bring with the knowledge and experience you have! This world desperately needs you, a world your youngers selves will someday be born into. Make the world you would wish yourself to have been brought into.”

“What do you think ‘Mione?” Ron asked pulling back to wipe away her tears gently. 

They all watched as Hermione weighed their options before finally, she met Harry’s eyes.

“We start again?” Hermione asked. “Stop him before he ever threatens a baby in his cradle? Save our families from all that suffering?”

“I’m in,” Harry said.

“Me too,” Ron said immediately backing him up. 

George was next to agree then Luna, Newt, and finally Rolf. 

“Then, I say we do it,” Hermione said before she turned her eyes on the two women, “but now that leaves the question of who you two are exactly and why you are here.” 

“I’m a professor, we told you that,” Palmer snarked before she rolled her eyes, “don’t expect a straight answer out of this one though, she’s not one for answering things about herself. She’s been working as my apprentice for about a year, though Merlin knows why since she knows far more about Divination than I ever have.”

Alleria’s mouth twitched and without saying a word she moved the sleeve of her robes to reveal a tattoo on her right forearm. It was not a tattoo they would expect to be there, not a Dark Mark, no Harry watched in shock as the deathly hallows sigil was revealed glowing an ethereal silver color against her paper-white skin. Once the three who it meant something to had seen it Alleria dropped her sleeve again and then placed her hand formally over her heart.

“It will be my pleasure to guide you in your venture, Master,” Death smiled at Harry, darkness yawning behind her dark eyes.

A fuzzy memory came to him of a woman with her hand over his heart as he lay in a heap on a cold forest floor where he had intended to die. In reality, it had been Narcissa Malfoy who had checked for signs of life and then coldly lied to the Dark Lord, but in Harry’s mind for a moment the two women blended together seamlessly. 

“Dead,” the woman who was both Narcissa and the physical incarnation of Death had spoken in one voice, setting up the events that would lead directly to Voldemort’s downfall. Creating the chance for Harry’s duel that would unite all the Hallows in a single person’s possession. One resurrection stone lost on a forest floor withstanding. 

“Don’t…don't call me that please,” Harry said faintly as the woman who was both the Seer Alleria and the current vessel for Death smiled at him in a way that was thoroughly discomforting. 

“Very well, Harry Potter, very well.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alleria is kind of an OC kind of not as she is meant to represent Death as I reveal at the end of the chapter. I know a lot of people get annoyed when OC's have a big place in the plot and I promise Alleria/Death will not. She has a more complicated backstory but even so, she will not take a lot of space in the story. I guess you can say she's sort of my thumb on the scale nudging things onto the right course that seems more natural than the characters perfectly capable of monitoring their fallout etc. Also for the life of me I could not find Trelawney's age or who was the professor before her so here we go. This story will always be primarily about the relationships between canon characters, with the expected self-indulgence of a time travel fix-it fic.

**Author's Note:**

> As for Harry's pairing, all I know is that I want him to be with someone, but I haven't decided who yet. I can be swayed to pretty much anyone who is currently alive in the story (except obviously Lily or James), so if you have a preference please let that be known. It'll probably be a first come first serve kind of deal. Some people I've considered are George Weasley, Regulas Black, possibly Luna if I decide not to bring Rolf with them that hasn't been written yet and he doesn't appear in this first chapter, Severus Snape, or one of the Prewett brothers. There are some benefits to using a character who has only been name-dropped but not fleshed out as I can create my own character of sorts, but also I have a weakness toward age-appropriate Snarry. The problem is I never had strong opinions on who Harry ended up with (very strange for me I must admit) just that I didn't like that he ended up with Ginny. Ginny is fine, but I never found her to be an exciting character like Luna was. Honestly, I kind of ship the Golden Trio as an OT3 but I've never written that so I'm hesitant to try. Oh well, let me know what you guys think! Love you!


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